Forgotten Green
by Sonixawesome
Summary: What happens when Pokemon are lost? If you do find them, how would they react? After all of that time, lost and alone... can they simply forgive you after something like that? And where can you hide if they don't...


Forgotten Green

I am a major fan of Pokémon. I started watching the anime when I was very young, and got my first game- Leaf Green- when I was about nine or ten years old. The first few save files didn't go too well, and I could never get past Blue, until my final save file. I did love the game though, naming my starter Pokémon- a Blastoise, Christian, after myself. One day after finally beating the main game and all the secondary missions, I gave Christian and my Mewtwo, dubbed 'Mew' at my brother's behest, to a friend of mine in Ruby who wanted to beat the Elite 4. She wasn't the best trainer, but she did eventually give it back to me. Unfortunately, I'd lost the cartridge, so I didn't get them back until I started playing Platinum and I migrated them over. I still remembered my old Leaf Green though, especially two of my stronger Pokémon, a Pidgeot and a Dragonite whose names were not any more creative than those of my other Pokémon, being Drake the male Dragonite and Hi-Fly the female Pidgeot. Names didn't really matter to me because, well, they're just Pokémon, you know? But I was so wrong to think that…

One day, I was searching through my storage unit, as my family was preparing to move again. One of the boxes far in the back of the unit caught my eye for some reason. It seemed to call to me, and through the whole task I was working on I just couldn't stop thinking about that one box. I finally got a small break, and decided to check out the box. I pulled it out, opening it with a strange eagerness I couldn't explain. Inside of the box were nothing more than a few notebooks filled with old Pokémon stories I'd written about being the world's greatest Pokémon Master and other things a child wrote about when they finished the games, and something else. I hadn't recognized it at first, but it soon became clear what this was.

None other than my old Pokémon Leaf Green. I know it sounds improbable, but I held no doubt about it. My older brother had a Fire Red, and my younger brother had an Emerald, so I was the only member of my family to have this specific version. Unless someone filled a box with my notebooks and a stranger's video game, this was mine.

I delightedly stuffed the cartridge into my pocket, giddy with a strange excitement. However, peaking behind my happiness I felt a strange sense of foreboding, almost as if the game was better off where it had been- don't ask me how I came to that conclusion. Once I got home, I blew into the port on the bottom of the cartridge and placed it in the DS slot. Oddly, I didn't see the star shooting across the screen as the Game Freak Logo appeared. I chalked it up to the game's old age and how long it had been left the way it was, playing on.

Then, all the Pokémon that showed up seemed more… Solemn. Gengar and Nidorino's expressions, rather than the mischievous grin and determined eyes they usually had, Gengar's smile seemed almost forced, and his eyelids drooped low. Nidorino didn't pounce, but performed a weak and slow walking motion. Its eyes seemed devoid of will power.

When Venusaur showed up on screen, it appeared to be tinted gray rather than green, and its eyes faced the ground rather than upwards as they should have. Its flower looked to be withered and dry. I didn't know how to explain these changes, but I shrugged it off and kept playing. No strange changes would keep me from the nostalgia bomb I was about to experience.

I pressed start, and sure enough, my name 'Chris' appeared on screen. It was what I always called myself in-game. I selected the save file, and the game went through my recent exploits- it turned out the trade with my friend had been the last event I'd done in game. It seemed a little saddening to me that I'd just given out my two strongest then quit playing entirely. My imagination trailed off, wondering how my Pokémon would feel about it. I disregarded the thoughts, smiling as I went to the menu and selected 'Pokémon'. Strangely enough, none of the icons for my team moved, as though they were fainted. None of them were, and were all in fact at full health. I once again shrugged this off as a minor glitch. It was my regular team of Pokémon, that being Hi-Fly, Drake, my Moltres, named 'Holdout' due to his use of endure in the battle where I ultimately captured him, and Arcticuno named 'Tough', because that's what my brother called his Rayquaza and I wanted to tick him off, as well as two Taillow, who must have been in return for my two Pokémon. I'd been expecting to get them back, after all.

After deleting any HM moves I placed them in the PC, keeping the two Taillow in my party, saved, and switched off the game. I booted up Platinum, selecting 'Migrate'. I chose my Pokémon- the four of my team as well as two Pokémon I knew I didn't have in Platinum at the time, an unnamed Pinsir and also nameless Vulpix. I selected 'done' and the Pokémon were shown lined up beside each other. The game said 'You wish to transfer these Pokémon?'. I selected 'Yes.'

An error message appeared, stating that the selected Pokémon did not wish to leave Kanto. I was pretty sure that Platinum was without glitches, so this confused me. I tried again, but the same message greeted my attempt. This time, however, when I re-selected the Pokémon, I discovered something wrong with the image of Hi-Fly. It was the Platinum image of Pidgeot, but rather than the bold direct stare and flowing plumage, her eyes were downcast, with her plumage drooping weakly downwards, and the colors weren't as bright as I remembered them, the red seeming to be tinted with gray and the yellow resembling mustard. I was shocked at this- my Pokémon seemed to be visibly upset.

"Why are you like this?" I asked aloud. A text box appeared on screen, with nothing more than the word 'You'. I was confused at first, but began to realize what it meant. My Pokémon was upset because of me.

"What did I do?" I was growing more and more confused and apprehensive. Something here had gone terribly wrong.

Another text box popped up, this time with the word 'abandoned'. I gasped, appalled. My Pokémon thought I'd abandoned her? I wondered about my other Pokémon, and decided to look at Drake. The dragon-like Pokémon's claws were clenched, and his eyes seemed bitter and angry. It wasn't smiling at me like it usually did, but instead its jaw was set in an indifferent expression. My heart rose to my throat, and I was uncertain what to say. I feared the next text box.

I wasn't wrong to. The white rectangle on the bottom of the screen sent shivers down my entire body.

'You forgot us.' It said. Drake was obviously more verbal than Hi-Fly. I shook my head, grasping for a reply I just couldn't seem to muster.

'We thought you cared about us, loved us, even. You just forgot. All our adventures… What did they even mean to you?' He said. I finally regained coherence of thought.

"Drake, I never forgot you!" I shouted.

Another text box appeared. As it popped up, I heard the sound that is made when you land a super effective attack, but much louder and more fearsome. 'LIAR!' it said.

I recoiled, barely keeping a grip on the DS. Another box revealed itself before I could say anything.

'The truth is you NEVER cared about us! We were just little pixels and numbers to you!' Drake said.

"That's not true! Drake, I didn't mean to… I was so young, I didn't…" I couldn't finish my sentence before Drake's reply showed on the screen.

'NO EXCUSES! There's NOTHING you can say to make up for your actions!' The Dragonite's image changed, this time baring its fangs with its wings extended fully.

I wanted to move away, to escape this strange monster that my Pokémon had become- to hide from the results of my mistakes. But the cursor wouldn't move, and it seemed that every attempt only angered Drake further.

'I'm not done with you!' He said. 'When you bought me from the game corner, I thought you really cared. But you didn't, you just wanted another Pokémon for your stupid Pokedex, another creature to treat like nothing more than a tool!'

I started crying. I'd done something terrible, and I now knew it, "I'm so sorry… Drake, Hi-Fly, all of you… I don't know what else I can do…"

Drake's face seemed to soften a bit, but quickly returned to its hardened, malevolent stare, 'You left us! You cared enough about Christian and Mew, but we weren't anything to you! We were left in this box, stuffed in Pokeballs and forgotten entirely!'

"I'm sorry…" I said.

'Sorry doesn't cut it.' After this text appeared, the game went black. The DS power light was still on, but nothing showed on the screen. I switched off the DS, and tried to turn on Leaf Green again. Maybe I could do something to apologize, train them again, try and defeat the Champion once more with Drake and Hi-Fly as leaders of my team, anything. But Leaf Green wouldn't turn on any more. It didn't show up as an option on the menu anymore, either. No matter what I did, Leaf Green was inoperable. I cried, grasping the DS tightly. I tried playing Platinum, but nothing seemed right. I started looking at all the natures of my Pokémon. I wondered… Would they ever be able to forgive me if I did what I did to Leaf Green? My Serious Infernape would probably just try to move on some way. My Hasty Staraptor would probably assume that she'd been forgotten immediately…

I made a resolution that day. I'd never treat Pokémon as nothing more than pixels ever again. I'd take into account their natures, and try to avoid doing things they didn't want to do. I use Bold natures more than Timid ones in contests, because I didn't want to put pressure on them. Pokémon was no longer about becoming the best trainer- it was about forming real trust with my Pokémon. I just wish I'd learned that without having lost my friends I hadn't even known I had.


End file.
